A couple of weeks ago, we were lucky enough to have a chance to see the latest series of works by Hella Jongerius at Galerie Kreo in Paris. Here is an excerpt from the gallery's press statement:

"Hella Jongerius celebrates the sculptural quality of design in her latest products, artificial flowers and animal tables, which were shown in Gallery Kreo in Paris from April 2009.

Jongerius has become known for the way she explores the possibilities and boundaries of both handicraft and industrial techniques and subsequently stretches them beyond the already known. For instance, in many of her works she has succeeded in producing uniqueness within the industrial production process through an optimal exploitation of coincidences and even mistakes.

Apart from this fascination for techniques, the narrative quality of products has always played a mayor role in her work. Stories seem to hide underneath the skin of products, due to the reinterpretation of historical decorative patterns, but also due to the imaginative use of the images of flowers and animals. While exploring the technical and narrative possibilities of designs, Jongerius never crosses the ‘natural’ boundaries of the design field.

She has taken yet another experimental step within her career: the celebration of the sculptural quality of furniture and the ‘missing link’ of her vases, flowers. A flower has become design, a table has become frog, because they were intimately engaged with the material traces of the handcrafted production process."

Louise Schouwenberg, 2008

The thing we loved most about the pieces are their tactile qualities and surfaces, in combination with their strong character that reminded us of Alice in Wonderland. Slightly bizarre, yet tremendously pleasing in an aesthetic sense, all the pieces are graceful and elegant, without being trivial. Especially the artificial flowers have incredible details, and even though the frog climibing the table was almost disturbing to me in the first instance, I had a tremendous urge to feel its smooth blue lacquer surface and the soft walnut wood straightaway.

« artificial flowers »

A series of handmade flowers in glass, leather, paper and wood in ceramic vases that are also designed by Hella Jongerius

« animal tables »

« Frog » solid walnut lacquered table

« Turtle » small, multi-colour ed coffee table with a resin fruit bowl

Galerie Kreo

31, rue Dauphine

75006 Paris

Tel. : +33(0) 1 53 10 23 00, Fax : +33(0) 1 53 10 02 49

www.galeriekreo.com 

About Hella Jongerius:

www.jongeriuslab.com

1963 Born in De Meern, Netherlands

1988 -1993 Study at Academy for Industrial Design, Eindhoven

2000 Starting with the company-name: JongeriusLab

Projects:

2002 Silk for Hermès, Paris Repeat; a collection of furniture fabrics for Maharam, New York Chrystal Frock; a chandelier for Swarovski, Austria

2001 Delft in Detail; exhibition-design and curator for Gemeentemuseum, The Hague Mobile Dreaming; for Auping, NL My Soft Office: Bed in Business, Weekly Dinner, Weekend Dinner, Powerpatch; for MoMA, New York Candle Holder; for Atlantis Crystal, Portugal

2000 Prince and Princess: porcelain and silicons Giant Prince: stonewear and cotton Embroidered Tablecloth: motives: dragon and flower; materials: porcelain and linen Groove Bottles & Long Neck Bottles: a marriage of glass and porcelain with tape Interior for visual handicapped elderly people in 'Het Schild', Wolfheze, in co-operation with Jurgen Bey Big Porcelain Pot and Jar; for Cappellini, Milan

1999 Kasese Foam Chair: folded chair with foam skin; for Cappellini Milan, produced by JongeriusLab Kasese Sheep Chair: folded chair with felt skin (by NTDH); for Cappellini Milan, produced by JongeriusLab Felt Stool; for Cappellini Milan, produced by JongeriusLab Big Porcelain Pot and Jar; Donna Karan, New York Pink Soft Urn and Chocolate B-set; for '100% Design London' Basketstools, Fruitstring, Poncho and Wrappingmaterials for the Oranienbaum project by Droog Design

1998 7 Pots/ 3 Centuries/ 2 Materials: updated 14th century shards, in co-operation with the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam B-set: porcelain Tea-set, produced by Koninklijke Tichelaar, Makkum

1997 Porcelain Waterset; during working-period at EKWC, Den Bosch Winded Stool; for Dry-Tech II, with assistance of the Faculty of Aerospace Engeneering at the Delft University of Technology Porcelain Stool; for Rosenthal Germany and Droog Design Waterset; for Kunst & Bedrijf at the occasion of Eurotop meeting

1996 Folded Washtub; for DMD, The Hague Pushed Washtub; limited edition Tea-cozy; for the Dutch departmentstore HEMA

1995 Knitted Lamp; for project Dry-Tech I, with the assistance of the Faculty of Aerospace Engeneering, Technical University Delft

1994 Pictureholder Young Giant Collection of 3 Soft Vases

1993 Collection of 3 poly-urethaan Bathmats Collection of 10 inflatable textiles

Exhibitions: (selection)

2002 ‘The Silk Menagerie’, The Design Museum, London, solo ‘Repeat’, textiles for Maharam, MOSS, New York, solo ‘Skin: Surface and Structure in Contemporary Design’, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York ‘Celebration of Dutch Design’, Apartment Zero, Washington ‘Home Made Holland’, Crafts Council Gallery, London ‘Comfort Zone’, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia ‘Trial and Error’, Gallery Andrea Leenarts, Cologne, solo

2001 ‘Mobile Dreaming’, Kunsthal, Rotterdam ‘My Soft Office’, Vivid Vormgeving, Rotterdam, solo ‘Delft in Detail’, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague ‘Designconnection

2001’, Superstudio Piu, Milan ‘Workspheres’, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

2000 ‘Pseudofamilies, Halffabrics in Ceramics’, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, solo ‘Pleidooi voor intuïtie’, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag ‘Pseudofamilies, Halffabrics in Ceramics’, Museum Het Princessehof, Leeuwarden, solo ‘Design World 2000’, The Museum of Art and Design, Helsinki Exhibitions with Droog Design in Frankfurt, Milan, Jerusalem

1999 ‘100% Design’, London (Felt Chair, Chocolade B-set) ‘ZAPP’, Milan (Kasese Foam & Sheep Chair) ‘Local Colour’, Droog Design for Oranienbaum, Milan

1998 ‘Do Normal’, Dutch Design exhibition, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco ‘7 Pots/ 3 Materials/6 Centuries’, Atelier Mendini, Milan ‘Inevitable Ornament’, Droog Design Exhibition, Milan (B-set and Waterset)

1997 Several exhibitions with Droog Design in Cologne, London, Helsinki, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Weimar ‘5 Years Droog Design’, Centraal Museum, Utrecht ‘Dry Bathing’, Droog Design exhibition (Soft Wash-tubs) ‘Dry-Tech II’, Droog Design exhibition, Milan (Winded Stool)

1996 Several exhibitions with Droog Design in Cologne, Montreal, Bremen, Stuttgart and Paris ‘Tresholds in Contemporary Design from the Netherlands’, The Museum of Modern Art, New York ‘New Plastic Treats’, Droog Design exhibition, Milan (Knitted Lamp, Soft Vases and Bathmats) ‘Self Manufacturing Designers’, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

1995 Several exhibitions with Droog Design in Cologne, Bremen, Verona and Paris ‘Droog Design’, Kunsthal, Rotterdam ‘Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design’, The Museum of Modern Art, New York Droog Design exhibition, Milan (Soft Vases)

1994 Droog Design exhibition, Milan (Bathmats)

1993 ‘Le Vent du Nord IX’, Institut Neerlandais, Paris

Museum Collections:

2001 Museum Het Kruithuis, Den Bosch: Giant Prince, Prince, Princess, Embroidered Tablecloth, 7 pots/3 materials/2 centruries, Long Neck and Groove Bottle. Gemeentemuseum, The Hague: Delft B-set, Long Neck and Groove Bottles, Giant Prince The Museum of Modern Art, New York: Kasese Sheep Chair

2000 The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: Kasese Sheep Chair Centraal Museum Utrecht: B-set, Waterset, Soft Wash Tub Dutch Textile Museum Tilburg: Kasese Sheep Chair, Felt Stool, Embroidered Tablecloth

1999 The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: Kasese Foam Chair (prototype) Centraal Museum Utrecht: Kasese Sheep Chair

1998 The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: Washtub and Tea-cozy

1997 The Museum of Modern Art, New York: Knitted Lamp Centraal Museum Utrecht: Soft Vases, Bathmats, Knitted Lamp and 2 Soft Wash-tubs

1996 The Museum of Modern Art, New York: Collection of Soft Vases

Publications: (selection)

2002 Lupton, Ellen, Skin: Surface, Substance + Design, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum / Smithsonian Institution, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, ex.cat. Wetdesign, EKWC, s’-Hertogenbosch, NL, ex. cat. Duhalde, Benedicte, ‘Un capital en heritage’, Intramuros, no 99, Feb/Mar 2002, p.36-37 Moreno, S., ‘Something Blue’, Inview no19, Paris, p.36-41

2001 Home Made Holland, how craft and design mix, The Crafts Council, London, p.42-43, ex. cat. Raderschad, Kristina, ‘The Alchemist’, Form, no 182, 6/2001, p.43-50 Fiell, Charlotte and Peter, ed., Designing the 21th Century, Cologne, p.246-249 (boek?artikel??) Delft in Detail, Gemeentemuseum The Hague, ex.cat. Roke, Rebecca, ‘Perfectly Faulty’, Monument, no 43, Aug/Sept 2001, p. 82-85 Valdez, Sarah, ‘Challenging the Cruel Cubicle’, Art in America, June 2001 ‘Workspheres in Moma’, Design Report, June 2001 ‘Hella Jongerius’, Case da Abitare, Apr 2001 Rawsthorn, Alice, ‘Wherever I lay my laptop..’, The Financial Times, April 4th 2001 Iovine, Julie V.,‘New Dutch Master of Design Is on Show at the Modern’, The New York Times, March 1st 2001 Antonelli, Paola, Workspheres: Design and Contemporary Work Styles, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, ex.cat.

2000 Hall, Peter, ‘Material Girl’, One, Dec/Jan 2001, p.57-58 Design World 2000, The Museum of Art and Design Helsinki, p.32-35, ex.cat. ‘The Unification of Related Matter. Hella Jongerius re-connects material families’, View on Colour, 2000 (Groove & Long Neck Bottles)

1999 Antonelli, Paola, ‘Going Dutch’, Harpers Bazar NY, 1999, p.153-156 Duhalde, Benedicte, ‘Hella Jongerius. La tension soutenue’, Intramuros, no 84, Aug/Sept 1999, p.28-31 White, Lisa, ‘Made by Hella’, View on Colour, no 15/99. p.17-23

1998 Sapper, Richard, ed., The International Design Yearbook 1998, Laurence King Publishing, London (B-set) Renny Ramakers, Gijs Bakker, ed., Droog Design Spirit of the Nineties, 010 Publishers, Rotterdam

1997 The International Design Yearbook 1997 (Knitted Lamp) Ida van Zijl, Droog Design 91-96, Centraal Museum Utrecht, p. 80-89

1996 The International Design Yearbook 1996, (Soft Vases)

1995 The International Design Yearbook 1995, (Bathmats)

1994 - 2002 Several interviews and publications in national and international magazines such as: Items, Domus, Casa di Abitare, Iterni, Blueprint, View on Colour, Interior View, Design Report, New York Times, Ottagono, Vogue, Metropolis

Awards:

2000 Nominations for the Rotterdam Design Contest (Embroidered Tablecloth, Long Neck & Groove Botles) AVA Ceramics Award, Dutch Ceramics Industry Award (Groove & Long Neck Bottles)

1999 World Technology Award for Design, World Technology Network, London Nominations for the Rotterdam Design Contest, (B-set, Soft Washtub)

1997 Kho Liang Ie-Award, Incentive Award Industrial Design, Amsterdam Foundation of Arts (Soft Washtub)

Additional jobs:

2000- Head of Department 'Het Atelier', Design Academy, Eindhoven

1998-1999 Teacher in Design, Design Academy, Eindhoven 1998 Summerworkshop, Domus Academy, Milan

1997 Workshop at the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste, Karlsruhe Workshop at the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste, Hamburg

1996 Teacher in Design, Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam

All images ©Fabrice GOUSSET, COURTESY GALERIE KREO